


Jacen and Clank

by RoninReverie



Series: Jacen Syndulla Stories [2]
Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Fanart, Id-10 seeker droid, Lothal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-22
Updated: 2018-03-22
Packaged: 2019-04-26 04:04:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14393898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoninReverie/pseuds/RoninReverie
Summary: When Jacen and Hera visit Lothal to retrieve a gift left by Sabine, Jacen runs into trouble involving an old seeker droid and some gruff older kids.





	Jacen and Clank

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr: [Link!](http://roninreverie.tumblr.com/post/172156937684/jacen-and-clank)  
>    
> Also: [Fanart! ](http://roninreverie.tumblr.com/post/172088340864/jacen-and-clank)

Hera and Jacen were visiting Lothal to check in during Sabine’s absence. They weren’t really sure where she went, but they knew she was with Ahsoka and that both women were equally capable of taking care of themselves and each other. They were going to find Ezra, and wherever that took them, it had finally cost them communication with the  _Ghost_.

They came to Lothal a lot, mostly on short visits or on “Kanan’s Force Day” as Jacen called it. Every year, on the day that his father had become “one with the force” as his mother would tell him, Hera and Jacen visited Lothal and said their respects to the grand mural that Sabine had painted in one of the transmit towers on the outskirts of town. Jacen wasn’t really sure what to say to the painting of his father, so instead he would just tell him a little about what had been going on in his life and leave it at that. It was his mother who seemed to like talking to the picture the most.

Today was not that day, but instead, it was close to Jacen’s birthday, and before they lost contact, Sabine had mentioned to them that she had a present waiting for Jacen back at the Lothal tower. She couldn’t give it to him herself this year, but had prepared it before she’d left and told Jacen to go and find it when it got close to his next birthday. Therefore, his mother flew them over on her downtime from the New Republic Army.

After landing, and saying hello to the mural, Jacen found the present wrapped on top of a small table in the corner, the paper decorated with colorful images that were easily recognized as part of Sabine’s artwork.

“I found it!” Jacen exclaimed, grabbing the package as he ran back to show his mother.

“Well,” Hera said with a smile. “What did you get? Go ahead and open it.”

“It’s not my birthday yet…” Jacen said, his look questioning her as though her invitation was a somehow a trap.

“It’s okay to open it a little early,” she laughed. “Let her rip!”

He smiled, his eyes gleaming as he happily tore off the decorative paper and saw his gift.

He gasped in awe as he let the wrapping fall to the floor. In his hands was a small, saucer shaped shoulder plate with a Lothwolf design painted on it. The design was the same one as she had detailed into his vest a few years back and he was ecstatic about it.

“Wow! My own shoulder plate! Look Mom! Look!”

“That’s very nice!” Hera grinned. “Be sure to thank Sabine the next time you see her.”

“I will!” he said, still smiling. “Can I put it on?”

“Sure  _luv_ , come here.” Hera helped him put on the armor and Jacen strutted around proudly, an eight year old picture of pride. Hera patted him on the back and continued. “Now, Sabine hasn’t bent it into shape yet because she didn’t know how much you’d grown since the last time we saw her. I’m sure we can fit it to you later.”

“It’s so cool!” he said. “Can I go to town and show it to Arwynn and Parsee? Please!?”

Hera hummed in thought.  _Sure Lothal was a lot safer now, but Jacen was still only eight._

“Not alone,” she said. “I’ll drop you off closer and you can meet up with them while I check in with some old friends, deal?.”

“Okay.”

“Only for a short while, Jacen,” she warned. “We have to get back to base soon, you got that? No arguments this time!”

He nodded, barely hearing her because his attention was too focused on his shoulder. Hera rolled her eyes, and directed him back to the ship, his gaze never leaving the armor, not even when he stopped to show it to Chopper.

* * *

 

When in town, Hera allowed Jacen to sprint away to where his Lothal friends lived and played nearby.

“Jacen!” they each greeted. 

One was a short boy with dark skin and light hair, the other a green skinned Rodian. Both had grown taller than Jacen, but that was to be expected due to them both being a little older. He knew he’d catch up eventually, but that wasn’t important today.

“Check it out!” He showed off the plate.

“That’s pretty wizard!” one cheered.

“Wow! Real armor!” The other knocked on the piece to hear it defensively clank in return. “Did you feel that?”

“Nope!” Jacen replied with a swift shake of his head and a smug grin.

After a few minutes of admiring the present, the three young boys started talking about their time apart and everything that had been happening since Jacen’s last visit. Jacen had plenty of neat stories to tell thanks to all the travelling and fighting he did with his mom and Chopper on the  _Ghost_. 

He was halfway through a daring tale of a thwarted spice cartel in the Outer Rim, when a sad whirring noise in the distance made them pause.

“What’s that sound?” Jacen asked.

“Probably the Thurrin brothers,” said Arwynn. “Their dad is a junker.”

“They’re always getting spare droids and old ship parts,” continued Parsee.

“You mean, they sneak them!” Arwynn growled. “Usually to torture or to torture us with.”

“It sounds like they got another new toy to mess with.”

Jacen was already up and walking towards the sound before the other two knew what was happening.

“Come on!” He motioned at them with his hands. 

“Wait! Where are you going?”

“Don’t go Jacen!” Parsee hollered. “The Thurrin’s are all mean as Tuskens!”

“They’ll beat you up!” Arwynn hollored.

Jacen ignored their warnings with a wave of his hand and ventured towards the noise anyway. Timidly, the boys decided to follow a safe distance behind him, but by then Jacen was already a good block and a half ahead of them.

* * *

 

When Jacen found them, he saw the three older boys, all taller than any kid he knew, so that meant they were probably already 13 years old or more. Each kid was dirty and covered in black grease, their skin tough and yellow, and each of their hair was worn long and as dark as the oil marks on their clothes.

They were throwing a disk between them, catching it and tossing it again as they tumbled over one another and climbed over obstacles in the street. Most people cleared out of their way, a lot with looks of disdain or distrust, so Jacen thought they must be troublemakers like his friends had tried to tell him.

Jacen looked for the noise between the three of them and finally realized that it was coming from the black disk they tossed back and forth. He saw it clearly when one of the brothers held it for a long while while pointing for his brothers to run out further ahead. He tossed it again, and Jacen heard the unmistakable sound of its binary screaming through the air.

“An old seeker droid!” Jacen breathed to himself.

The thing was dented, the eye barely glowing, and all of its appendages were missing, but it was still struggling to remain active as its circuits spun around in a dizzy whirlwind.

“Hey!” Jacen called, rushing forward to face them.

The brothers stopped laughing and looked with upturned noses and sinister smiles down at Jacen. He didn’t even come up to the shoulders of the smallest Thurrin brother, and it was apparent that none of the boys saw Jacen even remotely close to a threat.

“What are you supposed to be?” one said.

“What’s up with your hair?” another said.

“Get lost big ears!” the last finally motioned, a thumb jabbed in the opposite direction.

Jacen frowned, but avoided the urge to touch his ears. His brows lowered again, and firmly, he pointed a finger at what was left of the Seeker droid and stomped his foot in the dirt.

“Stop messing with that droid! Can’t you see he doesn’t like it?”

They burst into laughter.

Meanwhile, Jacen’s friends had caught up and were parked, peeking around the corner where they were less likely to be seen by the older kids. They were too afraid to take even an inch closer, and Jacen knew he couldn’t ask them for any help. He was on his own.

The boys shooed Jacen away, mocking his words as they threw the seeker droid again, its sad binary voice begging for them to stop.

Jacen stepped closer and shouted, louder now. 

“Hey!”

Looking to one another, the medium sized boy stepped out and shoved Jacen hard, making him fall backwards into the dirt.

He sniffed once, but got back up and dusted himself off.

“What are you gonna do, huh? Tough guy?” He shoved him down again.

Jacen waited on the ground until the boy laughed and turned his back, then he kicked him hard in the back of the knee before jumping off the ground and using the boy’s back to launch himself at the smallest brother who held the droid.

“What in the hell?” the oldest said.

“Get this crazy kid off of me!”

“Get off, you little half-breed!” the tall brother yelled, grabbing at Jacen’s clothes until giving up his attempts at grappling and prepared his foot for a harsh shove in Jacen’s side.

Jacen braced himself for the kick and slid a little ways after being struck. Still, he was able to get up onto his feet before the boys surrounded him and had him cornered against the fence.

“You see this?” The medium one said. “This here is an Imperial droid!”

“Yeah, wise guy!” The small one yelled. “It’s a bad robot! It’s not like it doesn’t deserve it! Someone threw it out and now it’s ours!”

“And now it’s not so much a droid but a flying saucer!” The oldest waved the droid around, its beeping still dizzy and weak.

“That doesn’t matter!” Jacen yelled back. “That doesn’t make it right! Droids have feelings too!”

“If they’re programmed for it?” The small one scoffed, spitting into the dirt by Jacen’s feet.

“Get outta here, kid!” The oldest shooed. “Before we make dents in you like this thing.”

They walked off, and Jacen took only one step forward before stopping. What could he do? He was smaller and weaker than these older kids, and they had him severely outnumbered. His side still hurt from where the biggest Thurrin had kicked him, but he didn’t feel a single hit directed at his shoulder thanks to Sabine’s gift. 

He touched it and froze.

“W-wait!” He called, his voice shaky as he took three large steps towards them.

They rolled their eyes, but turned only to see Jacen taking the shoulder piece off his arm. He held it out to them and swallowed, his brows curved and eyes wet, though no tears came out as he blinked the droplets away and his voice grew firm and demanding once more.

“Here!” He held it out. “Trade me! That old droid for this! It’s brand new, I promise!”

They gave one another a look, and the small brother stepped closer and looked it over.

“It’s plastoid!” He exclaimed. “Must be made out of some old Stormtrooper stuff.”

“Is it cool?” The middle one asked.

“Kinda?” The small one replied.

“You can throw this instead of the droid. See?” Jacen tossed the shoulder piece all the way over the the tallest boy who caught it in his free hand, almost struck off guard. 

Jacen knew it would be easy for the boys to just take both items and walk away, but he really wanted that droid and hoped that they wouldn’t be so mean as to keep both. He wanted that seeker droid so badly that he felt as though his desires would make the other boys want to give it to him. He wondered if that was how the Jedi mind tricks were supposed to work. He sure wished he knew how to do that right about now.

“Well?” Jacen crossed his arms. “You want to trade with me, or not?”

The oldest chuckled, but threw the junker droid into Jacen’s hands. “Sure kid!” he chortled. “Crummy thing is gonna die any minute anyway? Have fun with it.”

Jacen turned the droid towards him so the flickering red eye could look into Jacen’s own.

“Thanks!” 

He smiled at them, though he didn’t really feel all that grateful. Still, they didn’t take both things away, so Jacen was at least relieved that his bargaining had gone the way he wanted.

The older kids only laughed and walked away, admiring their new flying disk as they continued their game and disappeared around the corner.

“Sorry about them,” Jacen said to the droid. “Don’t worry, I’ll fix you up, good as new!”

“Wow Jacen!” Parsee rushed over and shook Jacen like his friend was in shock and needed help coming back to reality.

“They didn’t beat you up!” Arwynn gasped. “How did you do that!?”

“Did you see him!? The way he kicked Fier down and then jumped out at Ribel!”

“Then you took a direct kick from Levin!”

“Are you okay?” Parsee asked.

“Yeah,” Jacen said, ignoring their storm of comments for the most part as he rubbed the dust off of the old droid’s holo-projector.

“What’s so special about that pile of junk anyway, Jacen?”  

“It doesn’t even have all it’s parts?” Arwynn added. “Why’d you give away your birthday present for that old thing?”

“Because he asked,” Jacen replied simply.

“Your mom is gonna kill you!”

“I know…” Jacen only bowed his head.

“Miss Wren is probably gonna kill you too.”

Jacen sunk deeper, his forehead touching the droid now.

“I know…” He said again.

The boys both placed sympathetic hands on his shoulders and patted.

“It was nice knowing you Jace…”

* * *

 

On his way back to the Ghost, he saw his mother waiting for him as she waved from the platform.

He frowned and tensed his shoulders, but meekly waved back, the droid held firm in his arm. He took what was perhaps his last steps as a free man towards the ship and prepared a story to tell his mother about the loss of his birthday present from Sabine. Nothing came to mind, so he just kept on walking and got ready for her to yell.

“What’s wrong luv?” Hera asked. “Wait… why are you so dirty? Did you get into another fight?!” She dusted him off and stopped when her gloved hands fell on his shoulders. 

He looked to the sky and started saying his goodbyes in his head. He found solace in the thought that maybe Sabine would paint him on their mural after his mother got done killing him.

“Where’s your shoulder piece? Jacen, look at me!” She tilted his chin at her and her eyes were two fiery pits of pure green anger. “Did someone steal from you? Do you know who it was? Did you see them?” She repeatedly touched his face, checking him over for scrapes as she continued threatening whoever had done this to her baby. “When I catch the lowly gutkur, they’re going to wish they—”

“Mom!” Jacen finally stopped her when her voice started sounding more like Aya Cham’s accent, something he knew was done only undercover or when she was extremely angry. Her lekku were pointed at her back, so Jacen could tell it was the latter.

“What happened baby?” She asked, calmer now as he lekku relaxed and her voice returned to it’s more gentle tone.

“I—” he tried to say something, but ended up just telling her the truth. “I traded it.”

“Jacen Caleb Syndulla!” Hera scoffed. “Sabine made that armor especially for you! Why would you do such a thing? I thought you liked it?”

“I did,” Jacen sniffed once, but wiped away his tears before he could cry. “But these guys were picking on this droid!” He cried anyway. “And I traded them my shoulder plate so I could fix it!”

Hera looked down at the black saucer in her son’s hands, noticing it for the first time.

“Jacen, that’s an Imperial Seeker droid!” Hera exclaimed, more shocked than angry. “Those are dangerous!”

“I thought I could fix it…” He sniffed. “It was asking for help.”

Hera sighed and shook her head until her own hand caught her face.  _This boy was her child alright._

“Okay…” she said. “Alright, alright… Get it inside and we’ll see what we can do for it.”

“Really!?” Jacen perked up.

“Yeah,” she sighed. “Go ask Chopper if we have any spare parts in the back that are compatible to this model.”

 _“WUH!? BUH! BER! BUH! WAH!”_  Chopper grumbled, his binary cursing hastily upon seeing the broken junk heap.

“We’re going to fix him Chopper!” Jacen said. “Like Mom did with you.”

“Just be glad it wasn’t a Lothcat, Chop…” Hera sighed. “Come on, let’s help Jacen fix the old clanker up.”

“Hear that, Clank?” Jacen said to the eye port. “Mom is going to help me make you better!”

Chopper buzzed.

“And so is Chopper!” Jacen corrected. “He’s really nice, I think you’ll like him.”

“Jacen,” Hera eased. “Try not to get too attached until we know how much damage the little guy has. We might not have a lot of spare parts onboard to fix him.”

“I know we will!” Jacen said. “I can get more parts back at the base too, right Mom?”

“I—suppose?” Hera finally shrugged.

“Don’t worry Clank! You’re safe now!” Jacen smiled. 

The droid almost sounded like it was sighing with relief, before shutting down so Jacen could work on it.

“I’m gonna take good care of you, I promise!” 

And it was a promise that Jacen knew he was going to keep no matter what.


End file.
